From nano-ethicswash to real-time regulation

The author of this article takes a look at two different approaches of dealing with the ethical implications of nanotechnology. The first approach, labeled by the author as “nano-ethicswash,” views ethics as always being benign and virtuous, and discusses ethics in either a highly abstract way or contains a standard list of ethics issues such as nanotechnology’s military use or its use in human enhancement. The author argues that ethics is now always benign and universal, but can often be relational and contextualized. The author asks the question about literature on nanoethics. Ethics for whom, and for what purpose?” The author argues that one purpose may be to use ethics to make nanotechnology more palatable to various publics, and therefore avoid the controversy that arose over genetically modified organisms (GMO). In contrast to this, the author gives us an example of what she calls “real-time regulation” or the approach of the European Union of continual vigilance. Very little is known about the potential toxicity of different forms of engineered nanoparticles, and development of this technology is moving forward at a pace far greater then the development of toxicology research, and we truly do not know what kinds of nanotechnology enabled applications will be developed in the next few years. To deal with these “unknown, unknowns” the European Commission has adopted the Code of Conduct for Responsible Nanosciences and Nanotechnologies Research” in February of 2008, that calls on all social actors to be vigilant and responsible about the responsible development of nanotechnology. Questions still remain about its voluntary status and its role in developing regulation. The author concludes with a case study to show the challenges faced by this form of real-time regulation.